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I'm traveling to the US on a business trip (B1/B2 visa) and my wife (also B1/B2 visa) will meet with me at the destination and stay with me (the hotel is also paid by the company and the reservation is in my name), but because my flight was paid by my employer (non-US company) and we privately paid for her plane ticket, we will have to flight in two separate flights and pass through customs in different airports. Should this cause any problems? Should she say that she is traveling alone?

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Should this cause any problems?

Why on earth would it?

Should she say that she is traveling alone?

You're over-thinking this. Landing interviews are a conversation with a human being, not filling in a form. If they ask if anyone's travelling with her, she can always say something like, "I'm travelling with my husband but we're on different flights because we had to buy the tickets separately." If they want more information about that, for some reason, they'll ask.

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    Or "Yes; I'm going to meet my husband in Albuquerque." Or wherever.
    – phoog
    Commented Sep 28, 2017 at 23:32
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hey :) you guys may have already had your trip- just wanted to reach out to your wife. I feel her pain. I go through the same thing with my hubs all the time- we've become booking mavens so as not to fly international alone anymore.

So yeah, she should be very open and straightforward as she goes through customs- Say that she's here with you and you're on business, meeting wherever.. here for however long.. just relax and stay calm. Remember, the officers are just people. Smile and be patient and they're actually pretty nice.

Tips for traveling separately internationally from personal experience:

  • phone service: arrange cell and data coverage before you go so your phone works when you land. You're going to need to find each other, so both of your phones need to work.
  • the hotel: list her as a guest on the reservation in case she gets there before you
  • apps for the hotel, airline, and uber (and tripadvisor while you're at it)
  • google maps: allow each other's locations- then you can see each other on the map

Have fun.

And next time Book your tickets at the same time in 2 different browsers. :)

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Yes, because she is technically traveling alone. No one will even know that you two are staying together unless you tell them (or they read this post). My mother is retired Government employee and she used to do this with my dad on a regular basis. Her ticket paid by her work and she would pay for my dad's ticket and they never had any problems or questions asked outside of normal security questions.

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  • It would be far safer to say "I'm flying alone, but I'm meeting my husband in City X later today."
    – Jim MacKenzie
    Commented Sep 29, 2017 at 22:51
  • Very bad idea--what if immigration figures out the hotel is in his name, not hers? It would be unlikely they would dig that much but having them catch you in even an unimportant lie is not good. The fact that they need a visa at all already means they're going to draw extra scrutiny--either they have sinned or they're from a high risk country or, very rarely, because they plan to be here over 90 days.
    – Loren Pechtel
    Commented Sep 30, 2017 at 3:53

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